Dispatches: Dozens of Cubans expelled from Ecuador

Ecuador’s National Police and immigration officials detained 149 Cubans last Wednesday. The Cubans had been sleeping in tents in Ecuador’s capital, Quito, to protest their inability to obtain a special humanitarian visa from Mexico that would allow them to travel to the US border, and from there seek asylum in the United States. The police were attempting to disperse the protest.

The Ecuadorian government said that as of July 11, a total of 75 Cubans had been sent back to Cuba and 22 had been released and authorized to remain in Ecuador.

The government claimed the detainees’ rights were respected. The Cubans, however, were held for hours in a Quito court office charged with evaluating whether detainees were committing a crime when they were detained, according to human rights lawyers who sought to provide legal assistance to them. The Cubans were unable to talk to their families or lawyers and did not receive any food or water, the lawyers said.